Crow #5 – 1995

I began to feed the crows in a grocery store parking lot with old
bread from the store, the birds very close and very active, and I became
fascinated with the incredible complexity of their abilities to move
and the exaggerated contortions of their bodies as they interacted.
During these feedings I often drew and then photographed, shooting
randomly into the masses of birds. From these drawings and photographs I
produced a large number of dry points. Of these I chose nine and
editions of 30 prints titled Stances I - IX were produced. The first 15 prints of each were collated into suites.

The prints were to be an end in themselves. However, it was difficult
to engender the incredibly flexible and plastic nature of the birds'
forms that I had perceived at very close quarters. I kept coming back to
the loose drawings and photographs, eventually deciding to produce a
suite of nine bird forms in three dimensions and attempt to deal with
the plastic nature of the crow's movement. I chose clay to work with
because of all materials, its nature might best mimic the plasticity I
had seen. The approach was very abstract and loose. I produced forms and
gestures and the idea of the specific details of the animals became
secondary to the process of forming. I looked upon them as moving chunks
of clay. I became caught in the process of that forming and the pieces
became more fluid and easy to make. As a result of the gestural
approach, some were left in states of incompletion, some with gaping
rough holes, some ripped apart. Some were opened up revealing hearts and
interior visceral exposures. One of the crows I observed during feeding
had a number of pin feathers which were devoid of the feather and this
animal fascinated me. To deal with what I had seen I used pieces of
reindeer antlers as part of the forms. As with the prints, from many I
chose nine pieces to cast in bronze. There is nothing symbolic about
that number for me. It came to be because that was what I started with.